For its 27th edition, the Paris Photo international contemporary photography fair returned in style to the Nave of the Grand Palais, with Jim Jarmusch as guest of honor and a copious and varied program.

Paris Photo invited us to an unprecedented selection this year. Over 240 exhibitors from 34 countries gathered in the 21,000 square meters of the recently renovated Grand Palais. A total of 195 galleries, including 66 new entries, and 45 French and international publishers presented 1,328 artists. Precise figures for an iteration under the sign of diversity, far more consistent, introspective and inclusive than in previous years. Since 1996, Paris Photo has never ceased to present the very best in photography. In 2024, Florence Bourgeois, the fair's director, and her teams have thought big. For four days, Paris Photo continued to celebrate the heritage and emergence of photography, while creating dialogues between historical works and contemporary practices.

MULTIPLE SECTIONS

At the heart of the Nave, the Main sector extended its scope to 147 galleries, highlighting solo, duo and group shows. In particular, the "Prismes" projects presented large formats, photographic series and installations, taking a historical and contemporary approach and questioning the limits of the image. Among the works featured was that of Anton Kusters, represented by the gallery In-Dependance by Ibasho. The Belgian multi-disciplinary visual artist unveiled Blue Skies, a series of 1,078 photographs of blue skies captured on the sites of former Nazi camps, tackling the themes of trauma and commemoration.
This year's fair opened up to several new features thanks to the extra space provided by the Grand Palais. "Voices" was one of the new sections, curated by three international curators: Sonia Voss, Elena Navarro and Azu Nwagbogu. This section explored the place of the archive and the post-Cold War art scene in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the North. The first curator revealed "4 murs", examining the role of the bedroom as laboratory, personal theater and observatory for liberating artists and transfiguring reality. The second exhibited "Paradis imparfaits", questioning the social, political and economic conditions of the artists' countries of origin. The third revisited and reinterpreted the objectivity of archives in "Corps Libérés" for new perspectives on creative expression and intellectual reflection.

The "Emergence" section, curated by Anna Planas, focused on the contemporary scene, with over twenty monographic exhibitions. It challenged the medium to experiment with new voices, demonstrating the dynamism of a new generation of artists. The "Publishing" section testified to the central role of the book in the history of photography, marking the return of antiquarian books.
If, in 2023, Paris Photo became the first art fair in Europe to create a "Digital" pole, curator Nina Roehrs has this year enriched it with 15 galleries and platforms. In the Nave of the Grand Palais, group and solo shows offered a panorama of photography at the intersection of technology and digitalization.

JIM JARMUSCH AND TWO BIRTHDAYS

A leading figure in American independent cinema has taken over this 27th edition. On the occasion of the centenary of Surrealism, which echoes the Centre Pompidou's exhibition, Jim Jarmusch was invited to create a series of works for a dialogue between cinema, music and image. For forty years, this multi-disciplinary artist has had a profound relationship with photography. He has also created numerous collages rarely seen by the public, which he has brought together in the album Some Collages (Anthology Editions, 2021).
In this thematic scenography at Paris Photo, he presented Return to Reason, composed of four films by Man Ray, exploring the cinematic medium in the continuity of painting and photography. Jim Jarmusch tied the whole together with the music of SQÜRL, his avant-garde post-rock band.
The director of Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise and Paterson was also a faithful friend of Robert Frank (1924-2019), who was always a source of inspiration for him. The Swiss-American photographer, who redefined the iconography and aesthetics of the still and moving image, is also celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth at Paris Photo. While Pace gallery devoted a solo show to him at the opening of the fair, Thomas Zander offered an exploration of his influence on new generations, while the Steidl publishing house put the spotlight back on his editorial work.

BIG NAMES AND THE PLACE OF WOMEN

As usual, Paris Photo honored other major figures in photography. Among the solo shows, Galerie Fraenkel presented a retrospective of the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto, exploring time and memory through photographs and video installations. William Wegman, known for his dog-centric images, was featured at Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois. The fair also featured Charlotte Perriand at M77, Nil Yalter at 1 Mira Madrid, Claudia Andujar at Vermelho and the duo show by Fred Herzog and David Hockney at Galerie Equinox.
The "Elles × Paris Photo" exhibition, curated by Raphaëlle Stopin, director of the Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie and former artistic director of the Hyères Festival, shone a spotlight on the place of women in the arts and culture. Since its launch in 2018, in collaboration with Women in Motion, this initiative has increased the share of women photographers from 20% to 38% in six years.
For this 27th edition, luxury goods group Kering financially supported four galleries: Higher Pictures (New York), Martini & Ronchetti (Genoa), Monitor (Rome), Nadja Vilenne (Liège). This year, "Elles × Paris Photo" focused on the silences of history. Notably through the women artists who seized the medium of expression in the post-war years to thwart models and norms, seeing it as a tool for plastic research and experimentation.

FROM DIVERSITY TO YOUTH

The return to the Grand Palais was also an opportunity to present "The Forms of Things, The Forms of Skulls, Forms of Love", an ensemble of works by Lithuanian photographers from the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), the Centre Pompidou and the Lithuanian Union of Photographers. This collection highlighted the little-known work of this generation, active from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Among the fair's other new features, a number of stands also made their debut. Fnac, for example, presented "Affaires de regards", a selection of shots from its 1,800-strong photographic collection, from Brassaï to Martin Parr. Photo Élysée, one of the world's leading photography museums, also unveiled the projects of the eight finalists for the Prix Élysée 2025.
This 27th edition also inaugurated an interactive educational space dedicated to children's photo books, co-produced by the Institut pour la Photographie and Photo Élysée. The "L is for Look" exhibition explored the evolution of this sector since the 1930s. A great initiative to introduce and teach photography to young audiences.
And finally, "À Paris pendant Paris Photo" offered an overview of all the exhibitions and events taking place throughout the four days, unveiling the French capital's cultural scene and photographic heritage.

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